Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling involves digital media, mainly the Internet, allowing users to gain a deeper understanding of a story through the use of creative and often interactive graphics that complement the written text.

Emily Nussbaum’s article reports that on Election Day 2008, The New York Times created Word Train, an interactive feature which asked users to pick a word that described their state of mind and to identify their political party. The resulting lists of adjectives were colored red and blue and displayed in varying font sizes; the larger the word, the larger the number of people who reported feeling that way. This feature told the story of the public’s feelings about the election and the candidates in a digital form. In 2006, the Times created a “database-driven, outward facing application” called Casualties of War. That application included a picture of a soldier made up of smaller pictures of those who died in Iraq, a data tab with multiple search options, and narrative stories. The story of the 3,000 soldiers killed was easily brought close to home by this digital representation. By clicking the links above, you can view these unique applications.

By including interactive features, journalists allow users to experience stories in their own way because the information is presented in multiple formats. In addition, digital storytelling devices can hold the attention of a user for a longer period of time. Instead of simply reading text, the user can click through multiple levels of information and choose what they are interested in, as opposed to moving on to another story if their attention is not piqued in the first paragraph.

Check out: Nussbaum, Emily. “The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady.” http://nymag.com/news/features/all-new/53344/

Which apps are popular and why?

One of the fastest growing new media devices is the smart phone. The use of iPhones, Blackberrys, and Androids is increasing as the technologies are refined and new options are made available. Many phones now have access to millions of applications that allow users to check stocks, play games, and do just about anything else. Each user selects their own apps depending on their specific wants and needs, but some apps are much more popular than others. I would like to find out which apps are the most popular and why people like them.

In order to research this question, I would begin by searching the Apple, Blackberry, and Android websites for listings of the most popular apps in terms of number of downloads. I would also survey smart phone users about their favorite apps and why they use them. A discrepancy will undoubtedly arise involving an app that is considered popular based on number of downloads, but highly unpopular by those who have downloaded the app. This is why there is a need to survey actual users rather than simply relying on the online statistics. There are also likely to be differences among the answers provided by several users who enjoy the same app for why they use it. This is why it’s important to find out why people use the app and not just whether or not they use it.

I believe a compilation of these results would provide insight into the kinds of information and entertainment people desire today and would suggest why corresponding traditional media sources providing the same information and entertainment are losing ground. The results would allow future developers of apps to determine what users want and how they want to access it.

Citizen and Participatory Journalism

The terms citizen journalism and participatory journalism are often used interchangeably and both share similar aspects. From my perspective, citizen journalism involves people who previously only received the news going out and reporting the news themselves. I believe participatory journalism describes the act of readers/viewers contributing to journalism via interaction with the news media by participating in online polls, leaving comments on stories, and sending in pictures, video, and other information.

Leslie Walker’s article On Local Sites, Everyone’s a Journalist describes citizen journalism websites as those where all news is submitted by people who are not reporters. However, We Media by Shane Bowman and Chris Willis defines participatory journalism as “the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information.”

The fact that these four definitions seem to all overlap proves that there is no clear definition of either term. Despite the lack clarity, examples of both are abundant. One of the best examples of this revolution is South Korea’s OhmyNews which J.D. Lasica categorizes under “full-fledged participatory news sites” in What is Participatory Journalism?  Bowman and Willis explain how OhmyNews allows over 26,000 citizen journalists to collaborate on writing stories for the online newspaper which is “the most influential online news site in [South Korea], attracting an estimated 2 million readers a day.” (Notice once again how one person refers to the site as participatory and the other refers to its citizen journalism.) Another obvious example of this emerging form of journalism is the increasing number of blogs which allow anyone to report information instantly.

One of the biggest changes in this new era of journalism is the decreasing amount of censorship. In the past, editors reviewed the stories submitted and selected which ones to run. Today, no one reviews all the information posted on personal and citizen sites. Traditional journalism has always concerned itself with principles such as objectivity, credibility, and accuracy, but as citizen and participatory journalism technologies have developed, people have begun to question where the lines have been redrawn and whether or not such work is worthy of being considered journalism. The field of journalism is likely to continue shifting away from large news organizations producing news and toward an increasing number of un-tested and un-controllable individuals posting news and information online.

Check out: Walker, Leslie. “On Local Sites, Everyone’s a Journalist.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46519-2004Dec8.html

Check out: Bowman, Shane & Willis, Chris. “We Media.”

http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php

Check out: Lasica, J.D. “What is Participatory Journalism?”

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1060217106.php

Creating Conversation in the Community

One of the easiest ways for news organizations to create conversation within their communities is to allow readers/listeners/viewers to comment on stories instantly either on a home website or on an associated social media page. I followed KHOU-TV’s Facebook site and commented on a story about a man who was sentenced to 70 years for stabbing a security guard trying to prevent the man from stealing a tuna sandwich. By clicking the link above, you can find the story and search for comment #41 left by me.

Another way in which news organizations instigate interaction with their communities is through online polling concerning various topics. One of the sports writers for the Houston Chronicle grades the performances of the Houston Texans after each game and encourages others to share their own grades via online poll. News organizations also encourage community members to send in pictures, video, and information pertaining to local news stories. J.D. Lasica’s article What is Participatory Journalism? points out during the Columbia shuttle tragedy, the Dallas Morning News included photos sent in by members of the community. For people to send in items, they must feel strongly enough about the situation to do so and as a result, they contribute to the conversation process.

Creating conversation in a community allows a news organization to cater more directly to the community by providing insight into members’ feelings about certain subjects. It also allows a news organization to cover a story more completely by enlisting the help of those closest to the situation and those with the most to gain or lose from the outcome.

Check out: Lasica, J.D. “What is Participatory Journalism?”

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1060217106.php

What's Next For Social Media?

It’s difficult to identify the next big thing in social media because recent history has proven that new technologies and services survive because they allow people to do things they never knew they were missing out on. Before Facebook, no one considered needing to know what was going on in other people’s lives at any particular moment, but now people can’t imagine how they ever lived without such access. Similarly, people never considered searching amateur postings for information until Twitter arrived.

In addition, Facebook and Twitter have changed over the course of their short lives, partly as a result of user suggestions, activity, and trends. Steve Levy’s article Facebook Grows Up suggests that Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg made a huge change when he allowed outside companies to create applications that take advantage of Facebook’s connections. By creating their own applications, the companies can use Facebook in a way that will make the most money for them. In Levy’s article Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter, he points out that “the Twitter community created many of the conventions now integral to the service,” including using hashtags for group commenting sessions, dollar signs for financial information, and @ before user names. Levy also mentions that “heavy retweeting by tech guru Tim O’Reilly helped popularize the practice.”

Even as social media continue to develop, they are constantly persuaded to combine with others in order to create even more far-reaching entities. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg turned down a $1 billion offer from Yahoo and Twitter turned down a $500 million offer from Facebook. All the while, Google continues to size up the various challengers threatening to take away its share of the Internet pie.

Pew research shows that among technology stakeholders and critics, most believe that Internet use, often in the form of social media, will continue to have a positive impact on their lives; however it decreases the amount of time spent in face-to-face relationships. Upcoming social media must continue to have a positive long term impact and must deal with the increasing loss of personal interaction. Research also reveals more adults use social media than teens, which means whatever develops next will need to cater to the needs of older generations.

If current trends continue, the next big thing in social media will allow users to communicate with each other and search for information posted by each other in a way that no one understands today. The new technology will force people to consider why they had not been using it all along and will encourage them to find their own unique ways of manipulating their access.

Check out: Levy, Steve. “Facebook Grows Up.”

 http://www.newsweek.com/2007/08/15/facebook-grows-up.html

Check out: Levy, Steve. “Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter.”

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_twitter

Check out: Anderson, Janna. “The Future of Social Relations.”

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/The-future-of-social-relations.aspx

Check out: Lenhart, Amanda. “Adults and Social Network Sites.”

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adults-and-Social-Network-Websites.aspx